Favorite hobbies: My favorite hobbies include reading a good book, watching old movies and going to the park/lake.

Achievements: I have provided a stable and comfortable environment for my two kids to grow up. My wife and I did our best to raise them while running our own business.

Lifelong to do list: Travel around the world, be good at martial arts like Tai-Chi and pursue an advanced degree

What scares you most about traveling? Being in an airplane accident

What excites you most about traveling? Seeing different places and people, and getting out of the routine to do something different

What are you passionate about? I like to make friends smile and laugh. I also love to share my knowledge with young people and hope to make a difference in their lives.

What would you do if you won the million dollars? I would share half of the amount equally among the 11 teams and the rest I would donate to charity.

People would be surprised to learn: I am not really comfortable in a competitive situation.

Favorite place you have ever visited: North European countries

Biggest challenge you and your teammate will face on the Race together: We need to try and put our different personalities aside and work to be the best team we can be.

What do you hope to accomplish by running the Race (other then winning one million bucks)? I hope the Race will be an exciting and fun experience that we can share for the rest of our lives. I'm also sure that facing the challenges and solving them together will definitely make us understand each other better. I hope to improve our relationship.

Pet peeve about your teammate: He uses foul language in situations when it's not really called for.

Kevin Wu

Age: 20

Hometown: Sugar Land, Texas

Connection to your Teammate: Son

Current occupation: Student/Internet Entertainer

Favorite hobbies: Making videos, competitive sports and traveling

Achievements: I just recently hit one million subscribers on Youtube. Also I'm the youngest person ever to be on Amazing Race!

Lifelong to do list: Ultimately I would like to learn how to cook, travel the world, start a production company.

What scares you most about traveling? Losing my luggage

What excites you most about traveling? Getting to experience new places

If I could switch places with someone: I'd rather not switch places with anyone.

Role model/hero: My dad. He knows how to keep it real.

What are you passionate about? Food

What would you do if you won the million dollars? I would use it to fund a show I have in mind.

People would be surprised to learn: I make YouTube videos with my dad. My dad is hilarious!

Favorite place you have ever visited: Amsterdam

Biggest challenge you and your teammate will face on the Race together: Being decisive and using our heads more than others, because as a team we might be at a disadvantage physically.

What do you hope to accomplish by running the Race (other then winning one million bucks)? The experience of traveling around the globe.

Pet peeve about your teammate: Sometimes we have a difficult time comprehending one another.

« Last Edit: September 02, 2010, 08:04:13 AM by georgiapeach »

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"Our fans are pretty good. They don't give away too much. Sometimes people love dropping spoilers, but our fans are good. They tend to do it in such a way that doesn't ruin it for fans who don't want to know."--Phil Keoghan

How did Kevin even apply to the race if he is 20 years old... I thought you have to be 21 years old to do it, because of the passport and other travel documentary :S

Nothing against Kevin, but apparently when someone's famous the rules don't apply to them. Caite was also 20, I think...

Oh yeah i totally forgot Catie, I remember Phil saying something about her being the youngest person to be on the race but i always though she was in the age limit... acording to wiki she was 20 at the time of film...

Favorite Team not just because of he's kevjumba, I love his dad in episode 3 <3who the heck wouldn't?! I saw some rude youtube commented by a guy called beekeeper11 and he said papa jumba was weak and bad

Micheal and Kevin benefitted from the lamest SpeedBump in Amazing Race history. It took 10 minutes at the same location (Ice Hotel warehouse) for them to sit on ice and continue on the race. They were still probably 2 hours ahead of the the second group of teams, so it would not have mattered. I think the placement of the SpeedBump at that particular point in the race totally neutered it, so why bother even having it at all. World Race Productions would have known in advance of this leg either the real the airline capacity restrictions or the ones WRP was going to impose to spread out the teams arrival in Kiruna.

Other almost as lame SpeedBumps in Amazing Race history were Maria/Tiffany (serve pho to the dockmaster in Cai Be, Vietnam), TK/Rachel (travel to fire training course, change clothes, get safety briefing, run the course, get doused with water, change clothes back in JiJi, Taiwan) and the Saunuabuss in Tallinn, Estonia (find the bus, change clothes, 10 minutes in sauna, change clothes back and find the museum again).

Micheal and Kevin benefitted from the lamest SpeedBump in Amazing Race history. It took 10 minutes at the same location (Ice Hotel warehouse) for them to sit on ice and continue on the race. They were still probably 2 hours ahead of the the second group of teams, so it would not have mattered. I think the placement of the SpeedBump at that particular point in the race totally neutered it, so why bother even having it at all. World Race Productions would have known in advance of this leg either the real the airline capacity restrictions or the ones WRP was going to impose to spread out the teams arrival in Kiruna.

Other almost as lame SpeedBumps in Amazing Race history were Maria/Tiffany (serve pho to the dockmaster in Cai Be, Vietnam), TK/Rachel (travel to fire training course, change clothes, get safety briefing, run the course, get doused with water, change clothes back in JiJi, Taiwan) and the Saunuabuss in Tallinn, Estonia (find the bus, change clothes, 10 minutes in sauna, change clothes back and find the museum again).

Take a look at another perspective. What if Kevin and Michael had been on the second flight? It would have made the race more exciting right? They would probably be last to get the clue after the Speedbump, then go on to complete the Roadblock maybe in last.. but as they'll definitely go for the same detour option, which will make them at least ahead of Chad and Stephanie, Katie and Rachel and Connor and Jonathan. That could have been exciting to watch.

I thought that was a pretty fair Speedbump. But rather than 10 minutes, maybe for a longer period of 15 minutes? I think a penalty must be at least 15 minutes long enough to be justifiable as a "penalty". A Speedbump is always fair IMO because no matter what the last place team on the previous NEL leg do, it is a task that only they have to perform.. it is not out to kill and destroy their chances to stay on the race (which will make the NEL pointless), but rather a penalty to slow them down.. and be fair to the other teams that they're being slowed down by an additional task that they do not have to do.

If they caught up and for example in TAR 16 (Jet and Cord's case), then good for them because they ran a good leg to finish and end the Speedbump even before other teams catch up to them.

Last night, on The Amazing Race, Michael and Kevin ran into a few problems in Russia. First, they misread two clues and incurred penalties for having a cab lead them to one cluebox and riding in a cab to another. Then, Michael struggled on the Road Block involving a Russian version of bowling. When they reached the finish line seconds before Chad and Stephanie, their hour long penalty was too much and they were eliminated from the race. Today, we spoke to the father-son team in an exclusive interview about their experiences on the race.

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: Whose idea was it to go on The Amazing Race?A. Kevin: It was both of our ideas. We both wanted to do it, me probably a little bit more. At first, I had to build my dad's confidence to say, "You can do this!" He believed in himself so once we auditioned and they liked us, we were on board.

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: What kind of preparation did you do beforehand?A. Kevin: Any team who said they didn't prepare is lying. We did our best to prepare with personal trainers. We worked on being mentally focused.A. Michael: I was doing the weights! I tried to do my best physically.

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: What was the most surprising thing about actually being on the race, as opposed to watching it on tv?A. Michael: To see Phil in front of us!A. Kevin: The most surprising thing ... it's a different experience. Yes, it's a race and sometimes, you don't get to enjoy all the places you go to but the show really does a great job of portraying things and showing the adrenaline. It's a pretty accurate portrayal.

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: Was there a team that stood out to you as the biggest threat?A. Kevin: Honestly, all the teams were very strong this season. Everyone knew that everyone else was strong and there was no one team that stood out.

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: Teams are often hurt on the race by taxi drivers. Was last night's taxi driver the worst experience you had or was there something else that perhaps we didn't see?A. Michael: That was the worst!A. Kevin: As far as taxi drivers go, we were pretty luck and fortunate. In Ghana, we had good taxi. Most of the places we went to, we had favorable drivers. Knowing it was between us and Chad and Stephanie and we were delayed, which could cost us... we had no idea we were going to be penalized. We finished 5 seconds after Chad and Stephanie.

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: You weren't the only team to incur a penalty last night. What was all the confusion about? Was it because there were so many clues?A. Michael: At least for me, it was the amount of clues.A. Kevin: For most of the leg, we had to do this thing called "Solve a Russian mystery". On the bridge, we got a clue. On the tower, we didn't get another clue and we weren't sure if we had to walk away. The building was 5 miles away. We assumed we should drive. It looked so far away! There was definitely confusion.

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: What did you learn about the other from being on the race?A. Michael: For me, Kevin complained a million times I treated him like a teenager. This race made me realize he's a grown up person. I think we committed to what he wanted to do and he can handle the stress much better than I can.A. Kevin: I learned that my dad really cares about my well being. He's a very considerate person. For him to do the show with me... I don't take that for granted. We did well. I think a lot of people were surprised that we stayed seven legs. I thought we could've done even better. We can't take it for granted that we were in the race for 7 out of 12 episodes.

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: Is there anyone that you're pulling for now?A. Kevin: We like all the teams but during the race, we sort of grew a liking towards Gary and Mallory. Throughout the race, they were one of the few teams that we could trust.

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: What are you two up to now? Are you back to your regular lives or do you want to do more television?A. Michael: I'm back to my regular job.A. Kevin: We came into the show with a pretty good fanbase. They're sad to see us go and a lot of people were messaging me afterwards as if we died or something. We're still going to be entertaining them. We want to keep our viewers happy

Amazing Race's Michael and Kevin: Getting Two Penalties Was a "Shock to Us"

by Joyce Eng

The No. 1 rule of The Amazing Race is to always read your clue. Kevin, 20, and Michael Wu, 58, failed to do so twice — illegally having a cab lead them to a location and then taking a cab — causing them to incur a one-hour penalty, which led to their elimination in Russia. "When we got to the Pit Stop, we had no idea we broke two rules," Kevin tells TVGuide.com. "That's why we were smiling walking up because when Chad and Stephanie had to go pay their taxi, we thought we were safe." See what else the father-son duo and YouTube sensations had to say about their time on the race, if Michael's heat exhaustion in Ghana was a factor and more.

TVGuide.com: What happened with the clues? You never looked over them, not even in the cab?Kevin: No. I mean, that's completely our fault, but that leg was kind of different from any other leg. The clue said we had to solve a Russian mystery. We had to go from location to location, so when we had to go to the top of the tower, we weren't given another written clue and we didn't know if we could take a taxi from the tower to the church. It was a mix-up and a few other teams didn't know that either.

TVGuide.com: At the tower, Brook said you weren't supposed to take a cab. That didn't alert you that you may have done something wrong?Kevin: No, because we didn't literally take the cab, like sit inside it. We followed it, but we didn't know that was not allowed.

TVGuide.com: Brook and Claire obviously corrected themselves. Did it bother you that they didn't tell you at the Roadblock that you guys messed up? Or did it not matter at that point since it was so late?Kevin: At the time, they were following us, and all of the sudden, we looked back and they weren't there. We didn't know why. We thought they just got lost. There was another time in Ghana where Brook and Claire didn't tell us about the wheelbarrow. We weren't mad at them. No hard feelings.Michael: Yeah, and they didn't have a chance to tell us when they were going back since we were in different cabs.

TVGuide.com: You were pretty upset at Nick for lying about a clue. Did you expect him to tell the truth?Kevin: I didn't expect him to say anything. Nick and us were pretty close. They were just one of the teams we were friends with. It was just ... I don't know.Michael: [Laughs] As Kevin said, we were close to them more than other teams, so we didn't really expect that. But it's part of the game, so it's fine.

TVGuide.com: Michael, did it really take you an hour to knock over the first formation of pins at the Roadblock?Michael: I don't know. It probably felt like one!Kevin: We don't remember. It was probably like 45 minutes or something.Michael: [The whole Roadblock] felt like hours! I couldn't really concentrate. They didn't show it, but Kevin was trying to teach me angles. I don't know what happened. Maybe I was tired.

TVGuide.com: Do you think getting heat exhaustion in Ghana affected you?Michael: I don't think so. I guess I should've talked to Kevin more about whether I should've done it instead of just doing it. ... I believe if Kevin had done it, we'd still be in it. [Laughs]Kevin: Who knows?

TVGuide.com: When you were assessed the penalties, did you think you were out, or did you think you still had a chance?Michael: We were still hopeful because Chad and Stephanie still had to check in.Kevin: It was a shock to us more than frustration [at not reading the clues]. We were wondering why we were sitting out. Getting the penalty, we were like, "OK, there's no chance. If we're out for sure, why did they make us sit out?" We didn't know what was going on.

TVGuide.com: Did you lose a lot of time settling with your cabbie and trying to find the Pit Stop? You have had trouble finding it the past few legs.Michael: It was a few minutes. We gave him another $40 and that convinced him that was all we had, so he let us go. It was extremely tough.Kevin: The clue isn't specific about where the Pit Stop is. Like last week, it said "Russian Cathedral," but it didn't say the "park across the street," so a lot of teams circled the cathedral like us.

TVGuide.com: You guys got frustrated a few times, but never blew up at each other like a lot of other teams.Kevin: People enjoyed our father-son relationship. I think it's even the cultural thing. I was never raised to raise my voice at my parents and get angry at them for anything. People are like, "You have such a nice relationship." My dad is my role model, so I'm not going to yell at him if he can't do something.Michael: From the beginning, I was telling myself, "This is a good opportunity for myself and my son to travel together, no matter how short or long it'll be. I will not get upset." I mean, we had to do this together. ... Of course, it was extremely difficult for me. I'm not going to lie about that. But I ended up doing it because I wanted to spend time with Kevin. He's 20 and this is probably our last time to spend time together for long time, and we got to travel around the world.

TVGuide.com: What are you up to now? More YouTube videos?Kevin: Probably. I've been working on videos that hopefully I'll release.Michael: I'll be back to my normal life. If Kevin still wants me to appear in his videos, I'd love to.

Hmm, in their post exit interviews with realitytvworld and other websites, kevin mentioned several times that the reason why they were penalized was because it wasn't really explicitly stated in the clue sheet, especially for the second penalty. but if that were the case, why were brook and claire able to discover their mistake and go back to correct it?

this is nothing much actually, but i was just wondering. i mean, some of his fans would probably get really mad at CBS for failing to be clear... when it probably wasnt really their fault.

Hmm, in their post exit interviews with realitytvworld and other websites, kevin mentioned several times that the reason why they were penalized was because it wasn't really explicitly stated in the clue sheet, especially for the second penalty. but if that were the case, why were brook and claire able to discover their mistake and go back to correct it?

this is nothing much actually, but i was just wondering. i mean, some of his fans would probably get really mad at CBS for failing to be clear... when it probably wasnt really their fault.

I wholeheartedly agree. It's time to learn from your mistakes and stop blaming others...

Hmm, in their post exit interviews with realitytvworld and other websites, kevin mentioned several times that the reason why they were penalized was because it wasn't really explicitly stated in the clue sheet, especially for the second penalty. but if that were the case, why were brook and claire able to discover their mistake and go back to correct it?

this is nothing much actually, but i was just wondering. i mean, some of his fans would probably get really mad at CBS for failing to be clear... when it probably wasnt really their fault.

I wholeheartedly agree. It's time to learn from your mistakes and stop blaming others...

That's why immature young people shouldn't be allowed to race

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The story so far:In the beginning the Universe was created.This has made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move